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Myths and assertions about traceability
NORWAY - As a consequence of recalls of minced meat, bans of imports of fresh salmon to Russia and sales of illegal fish from the Barents Sea, traceability and food safety and have become everyday terms.
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Is traceability the same as origin of a product?
"There are actually many people who believe this. But traceability is only a tool that makes it possible to obtain information about a product", says Kine Mari Karlsen.
Are food safety and traceability the same?
"Food safety deals with the contents in a product. Traceability is a tool for tracing this information and other product information. Traceability is therefore a very important part of a food safety system because it makes it possible to trace backwards in a production chain to see where a product comes from. Traceability can also be traced forwards, for example, to remove a product from shops' shelves."
Do companies with a traceability system have full control over everything that happens?
"They can, yes. But to have traceability internally within the company, it has to be possible to find out which raw materials and ingredients are used in the finished product. The company must also know where the raw materials and ingredients come from, and where the finished product was delivered. This must be documented such that the information can be found when needed, e.g. a week after the product is distributed."
Do the authorities require the companies to have traceability?
"Yes, to a certain degree. The traceability regulations in the legislation state that a company must have an overview over from whom they received the raw materials and ingredients from, and to whom they delivered the finished product. But this does not necessarily mean that the company has full traceability, because the authorities do not make any demands regarding internal traceability. Therefore, there are no demands for identifying how the lots are split up or mixed in the production. If there is a mishap, the worst case scenario would be that the company cannot find out for which finished product the contaminated raw material was used."
Source: Fiskeriforskning - 24th March 2006
